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Comics Experience Members and Alumni Meet Up in New York and Shanghai!

Posted on October 20, 2017

Our alumni have been building our community at conventions around the world, with a recent meetup at New York Comic Con (October 5-8) and a panel Shanghai Comic Con (October 5-7)! Creators Workshop member and CE alum Rich Douek hosted the meetup, while alum Ian Powers served on a panel to discuss how to best nurture and attract local talent – certainly a topic of interest for Comics Experience! We appreciate and applaud Rich and Ian for helping us to bring together aspiring and inspiring creators together.

“Workshop members got to talk comics, meet working comics professionals like Chris Sotomayor, Gamal Hennessy, and John Lees face to face, and get introduced to Travis McIntyre and the rest of the crew behind our new publishing partner, Source Point Press,” said Rich.

“While Andy wasn’t able to join us this year, he was there in spirit (and in the plates of appetizers he ordered for everyone)… [and] members shared their thoughts on the industry, creating comics, and showed off all the amazing stuff they were working on.”

Ian Powers’ friendship with Ma Yi and Li Yi Shan, local creators whom he met at last year’s Shanghai Comic, led him to meet members of the Reed Pop team at Emerald City Comic Con this past March. A discussion about the Chinese comics market, intellectual property, and film production, he provided them with some advice on better integrating the convention with the local community – and local creators.

“They gave me a table [in the special guests area] and also I brought in several locally-based comics creators who they were unaware lived in China, like Walter McDaniel and a few others,” Ian says.

“It was awesome! Everyone had some very unique perspectives, especially from the local Chinese artists, Ma Yi and Li Yi Shan they had some views on talent that is a little different from the creators that came up in America [Phil Jiminez and Billy Tan].”

He continues, “I got to be more than a translator and moderator when someone asked how a new writer can meet artists to collaborate with when they have no credits, so I told them about completing my short comic simply by going out and finding an artist at a similar point in his career [whom] I connected with over a story. Of course I then let him know that I found my partner in comics, Federico Deluca, right here on Comics Experience!”

The response proved so eager, Ian thinks Comics Experience should consider Chinese language courses. You can view all the photos from Shanghai Comic Con here.

Thanks again to Rich and Ian for their help, hard work, and for spreading the love of making comics!

“Andy Schmidt is one of the best editors I’ve ever worked with. His editorial suggestions are always on the mark and very stimulating. After talking with him, I’m filled with new ideas and excited to get back to my writing. He understands what makes a story work, and that’s a rare gift.”